Nobel Prizes Are Great, but Football Is Why US Universities Rule

This post is a reprint of a piece I published in Quartz in 2017.  Here’s a link to the original.  It’s an effort to explore the distinctively populist character of American higher education.  The idea is that a key to understanding the strong public support that US colleges and universities have managed to generate is their ability to reach beyond …

Walter Mimms — How “Please” Stopped Being Polite

This blog post is an essay from Atlantic by Walter Mimms about the peculiar evolution of the word "please" in English usage.  Somehow it evolved from the super-polite "if it please you" to the slightly less formal "if you please" to the polite but simple "please" to the peremptory "would you please move" to the …

Paul Fussell — “Thank God for the Atom Bomb”

This post is a stunning essay by Paul Fussell published in The New Republic in 1981.  Here’s a link to a PDF of the original. On August 2 last year, we observed the 77th anniversary of the atom bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.  This is as good a time at any to revisit the debate about whether this action was …

Larry Cuban’s Confessions of a School Reformer

This post is a brief promo I wrote for Larry Cuban's wonderful book, Confessions of a School Reformer, which was just published in Kappan.  Here's a link to the original.  They ask Kappan authors to recommend a book in every issue and this was my contribution.  You'll love this book! David Labaree recommends Confessions of a …

Too Easy a Target: The Trouble with Ed Schools and the Implications for the University

This post is a piece I published in Academe (the journal of AAUP) in 1999.  It provides an overview of the argument in my 2004 book, The Trouble with Ed Schools. I reproduce it here as a public service:  if you read this, you won’t need to read my book much less buy it.  You’re welcome.  Also, looking …

An Affair to Remember: America’s Brief Fling with the University as a Public Good

This post is an essay about the brief but glorious golden age of the US university during the three decades after World War II.   American higher education rose to fame and fortune during the Cold War, when both student enrollments and funded research shot upward. Prior to World War II, the federal government showed little …

Ian Morris — War! What Is It Good For?

This post is an overview of the 2014 book by Stanford classicist Ian Morris, War! What Is It Good For?  In it he makes the counter-intuitive argument that over time some forms of war have been socially productive.  In contrast with the message of 1970s song by the same name, war may in fact be good for something.  …

William Galston — When Character Reigned

This post is a lovely essay by William Galston about the importance of character in political life, which was published recently in American Prospect.  Here's a link to the original.   His case in point is George Washington, whose own character was the key to American independence and the formative influence on establishing the American presidency.   …

The Role of Queen

In light of Queen Elizabeth's death, I thought it might be worth revisiting this earlier post in which I reflected on the durability of monarchy over the years. ****** In episode 5 of The Crown‘s season 4, a desperate out-of-work painter named Michael Fagan breaks into Buckingham Palace, enters the queen’s bedroom, sits on the foot …

Commentary on James Sweet’s Essay about Historical Presentism

This post is a commentary on an essay by James Sweet, president of the American History Association, which appeared recently on the AHA site, along with an author's note in which he responds to the intensely hostile reaction his essay provoked from other historians on social media in just the two days after the original …